Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)2,471
editions published
between
1834
and
2017
in
32
languages
and held by
13,609 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
At the shabby boarding house in the rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, petty Madame Vauquer and her tenants wonder at the plight
of the aging resident Goriot. Once a well-heeled merchant, Goriot was--at first--afforded special treatment from the Madame.
But now something is clearly amiss in his financial affairs, and his increasingly tawdry appearance makes him a subject of
ridicule in the household. Some think he lost in the markets, others see him as a lecherous patron of prostitutes, but one
thing is clear: his selflessness and complete devotion to his two daughters

Eugénie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)1,783
editions published
between
1830
and
2017
in
25
languages
and held by
9,078 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Depicting the fatal clash between material desires and the liberating power of human passions, Honore de Balzac's Eugenie
Grandet is translated with an introduction by M.A. Crawford in Penguin Classics. In a gloomy house in provincial Saumur, the
miser Grandet lives with his wife and daughter, Eugenie, whose lives are stifled and overshadowed by his obsession with gold.
Guarding his piles of glittering treasures and his only child equally closely, he will let no one near them. But when the
arrival of her handsome cousin, Charles, awakens Eugenie's own desires, her passion brings her into a violent collision with
her father that results in tragedy for all. Eugenie Grandet is one of the earliest and finest works in Balzac's Comedie humaine
cycle, which portrays a society consumed by the struggle to amass wealth and achieve power. Here Grandet embodies both the
passionate pursuit of money, and the human cost of avarice. M. A. Crawford's lucid translation is accompanied by an introduction
discussing the irony and psychological insight of Balzac's characterization, the role of fate in the novel, its setting and
historical background. - Amazon (summary for a later edition of this title)

Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)919
editions published
between
1
and
2017
in
17
languages
and held by
5,636 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Set in mid-19th century Paris, it tells the story of an unmarried middle-aged woman who plots the destruction of her extended
family

The wild ass's skin = (La peau de chagrin) by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)1,136
editions published
between
1830
and
2017
in
15
languages
and held by
5,105 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
The imaginative breadth and the intellectual depth of [this novel] make it one of the greatest of Balzac's "Etudes philosophiques'.
With its central symbol of the magic piece of shagreen, it expresses the peculiarly Balzacian idea of the human will and dramatizes
with startling urgency the choice between ruthless self-gratification and asceticism, between vice and virtue, between dissipation
and restraint. The symbolism is powerful but not overpowering: shrewd psychology, superbly chiselled dialogue and the sheer
energy of the descriptive passages - the gambling den, the orgy, the devastating finale - give [the novel] a compelling and
forceful realism.-Back cover

Lost illusions by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)783
editions published
between
1837
and
2017
in
15
languages
and held by
4,281 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Lucien Chardon, an aspiring young author, leaves his small provincial hometown and attempts to succeed in Parisian literary
circles of the early nineteenth century

Droll stories by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)496
editions published
between
1831
and
2016
in
12
languages
and held by
4,210 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
"Balzac's Contes Drolatiques, or Droll Stories, were originally published in three volumes in the 1830s. Set in medieval Europe,
these stories were Balzac's attempt to write in the great tradition of Rabelais and Boccaccio, to render the Middle Ages with
a touch of raunchy humor, and to provide a delightful portrait of medieval France. Balzac took the old themes that had delighted
his ancestors--the tales of faithless wives and confiding husbands, of monks incredibly endowed for amorous athleticism, of
lusty wenches and adventurous lads, and of great bouts of eating and drinking."

Le lys dans la vallée by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)969
editions published
between
1800
and
2017
in
16
languages
and held by
3,514 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
The correspondence between a young Frenchman and his fiancee on the subject of love reveals the differences in the two sex's
approach to the subject

Le cousin Pons by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)712
editions published
between
1800
and
2016
in
12
languages
and held by
2,940 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
"A partner novel to Cousin Bette and the last of 94 works in The Human Comedy"--Provided by publisher

The country doctor by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)644
editions published
between
1800
and
2017
in
8
languages
and held by
2,852 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Part of the massive series that some regard as one of the masterworks of nineteenth-century realism, Honore de Balzac's The
Human Comedy, the novel The Country Doctor focuses on Dr. Benassis, a physician by trade, who has deep-seated beliefs about
social equality. While treating a prominent patient, Benassis expounds at length on his value system and discusses some of
the reforms that he has helped to implement in the town

The Chouans by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)621
editions published
between
1827
and
2017
in
9
languages
and held by
2,819 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
"Part of his Human Comedy sequence, the story follows the love of Marie de Verneuil of the aristocracy and the royalist Alphonse
de Montauran"--Provided by publisher

Colonel Chabert by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)501
editions published
between
1832
and
2017
in
8
languages
and held by
2,023 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
"Another novel in The Human Comedy sequence. This novel follows the riches-to-rags story of Colonel Chabert, who tries to
get his life back after everyone assumes he's dead"--Provided by publisher

La femme de trente ans by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)566
editions published
between
1800
and
2017
in
9
languages
and held by
1,902 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
A novel about the life of a young duchess in France during the time of Louis XIII

Beatrix by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)273
editions published
between
1836
and
2016
in
9
languages
and held by
1,631 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Honore de Balzac excelled at creating unforgettable characters, but most of his creations were works of pure fiction. Many
critics have asserted that the novel Beatrix is a roman a clef depicting the life of the French memoirist George Sand, as
well as the larger cultural shift from an era of genteel aristocracy and class stratification to a more democratic way of
living

Ursule Mirouët by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)346
editions published
between
1800
and
2017
in
8
languages
and held by
1,564 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
"Ursula (original French title Ursule Mirouet, 1842) forms one part of Scenes from Provincial Life, a series of novels-whose
other major work is Eugenie Grandet-examining manners and morals in the French provinces. Among all the novels of Honore de
Balzac (1799-1850), none depicts so penetratingly the small-mindedness, avarice, and envy of the provincial lower middle classes.
No limitations based on morality or decency will hold these people back in their effort to acquire wealth and influence"--Page
4 of cover

Le curé de village by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)323
editions published
between
1
and
2012
in
6
languages
and held by
1,343 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide

The black sheep : (La Rabouilleuse) by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)132
editions published
between
1800
and
2014
in
3
languages
and held by
1,232 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Formerly an aide-de-camp to Napoleon but now without prospects, Phillippe Bridau and his younger brother Joseph, a shiftless
artist, become entangled in a struggle to recover the family inheritance in a world where "to be without money is to be without
power."--Back cover

The girl with the golden eyes by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)222
editions published
between
1833
and
2015
in
8
languages
and held by
1,183 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
On the darker side of Parisian society, Henry de Marsay believes only in himself and in his cultural Paris world, until he
sees the girl called Paquita Valdes and elaborately plots her seduction. In his fervor, it is only too late that he realizes
he has a rival to the inaccessible Paquita ... a woman revealed to be his half-sister, the Marquise de San-Real

The two young brides by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)218
editions published
between
1800
and
2018
in
5
languages
and held by
1,034 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
"Two very intelligent, very idealistic young women leave the convent school wherethey became the fastest of friends to return
to their families and embark on theirnew lives. For Renee de Maucombe, this means an arranged marriage with a countrygentleman
of Provence, a fine if slightly dull man for whom she feels admirationbut nothing more. Meanwhile, Louise de Chaulieu makes
for her family's house inParis, intent on enjoying her freedom to the fullest: glittering balls, the opera, andabove all,
she devoutly hopes, the torments and ecstasies of true love and passion. What will come of these two very different lives?
Despite Balzac's title, these aren't memoirs; rather, this is an epistolary novel. Forsome ten years, these two will--enthusiastically
if not always faithfully--keep uptheir correspondence, obeying their vow to tell each other every tiny detail of theirstrange
new lives, comparing their destinies, defending and sometimes bemoaningtheir choices, detailing the many changes, personal
and social, that they undergo. AsBalzac writes, "Renee is reason. Louise is wildness. and both will lose." Balzacbeing Balzac,
he seems to argue for the virtues of one of these lives over the other;but Balzac being Balzac, that argument remains profoundly
ambiguous: "I would," heonce wrote, "rather be killed by Louise than live a long life with Renee.""--

Old Goriot by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)63
editions published
between
1835
and
2014
in
English and French
and held by
670 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
A kindhearted and idealistic youth enters the grasping Parisian society of the 1820s, starting at a shabby but respectable
boardinghouse, the Pension Vauquer. Eugene de Rastignac has entered in the glittering capital to make his fortune, and his
friendships with the pension's other residents introduce him to the realities and costs of city life. Pere Goriot- one of
the outstanding novels in 'The Human Comedy', Balzac's panoramic study of Parisian life- features richly detailed settings,
a skillfully related plot, and a vibrant cast of characters. Young Rastignac's acquaintance with the elderly widower Goriot,
a formerly wealthy merchant impoverished by the demands of his fashionable daughters, lies at the heart of this story of love
and greed. This book offers a timeless view of the tragedies behind the prosaic details of everyday life

Louis Lambert by Honoré de Balzac(
Book
)160
editions published
between
1832
and
2017
in
8
languages
and held by
490 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Veering away from his realism and plot based novels comes Louis Lambert. Containing real elements from De Balzac's childhood
critics have suggested it should be classed as a fictionalized autobiography. However De Balzac himself proclaimed the plot
was merely a platform for the metaphysical and philosophical ideas of the main boy-genius protagonist. The author regularly
declared himself to be a genius. Many agree he used Louis Lambert to explore the problems and difficulties that arise within
society from the perspective of a genius. Any readers who have become fans of De Balzac and wish to further explore his musings
and personal thoughts should definitely read this